Sorry

Sorry, but I will take a little hiatus now. I have too many things to do around the house and just have no time to think and sit down and write, Hopefully this little intermission will not last long. By next week things should be back to normal.

Impeachment

Here is a political item. I think I understand a lot of the political motives that goes on today. I can grasp the reasonings of the movers and shakers who are trying to shape politics to their likings. But there is something I can not grasp.

Trump had and Biden has a common cloud hanging over their heads, and the name of that cloud is (was) impeachment.

During Trump, Nancy Pelosi was foaming at the mouth while trying to impeach Trump. Thankfully, she did not succeed. But what I don't understand is if she would have succeeded and Trump might have been impeached, according to the constitution the Vice President becomes the President, and that would have been Mike Pence.

Mike Pence was just as much of a republican as Trump was. Did Pelosi hope that all Trump's policies were to be wiped off the books, and Pence was to dance to her tunes? I don't believe this. And to change the entire then current administration was not going to happen. So what was the point of the entire circus?

Now, the republicans want to impeach Biden. This is understandable, quid pro quo (impressive, ha?). But then laughing Kamala Harris would become president. What change would be brought about by such a difference in top management. Everything would remain the same.

A president usually chooses a vice president as a running mate because that person underwrites the president's policies and the president can rely on his vice president's support. So, why are they playing this game?

  

Sunday

 The rabbi thing exhausted me, so I am taking the day off.

Rabbi

I am not a sexist person. I believe in equal opportunity for all, yet there are certain things that go against my grain. But regardless of the prevailing situations and the passing of time, I am entitled to my opinion, right?

Like, I am not very comfortable with a female urologist. Late last year I had a young lady doctor enter into me to check my prostates. I am sure I was one of her many patients, but for me she was the only female doctor who ever did this to me.

But this is a side issue. This was not what prompted to write the following. 

We are living in the 21st century. Things, morals, attitudes are changing with an alarming speed. If one does not agree with that person better get off the merry-go-round of life. I don't have to like what I see, but I will accept it.

To me a rabbi is a scholarly, elder gentlemen of the Jewish faith who possesses a great deal of knowledge and life experience. And I am sure years ago that the way it was everywhere in the world. But things began to change and now more and more women become rabbis. Well, this is so so. But what is not so so is that some of them are still very young but became ordained and now they are full fletched rabbis.

One of the reformed synagogues in New York live broadcasts their Holy Day and Sabbath sermons. Their chief rabbi is a Korean lady of mixed parentage. Their staff includes several female rabbis and a few female cantors. Yesterday at the closing service of Yom Kippur their youngest rabbi was making a long speech. I swear she was still in her twenties. 

Now, how can such a young person disperse wisdom and life experience to the faithful when she, herself has none? She could be a very nice person. Religious and an honest believer. But a rabbi? No way Jose!

Vacuum Cleaners

My lovely wife is a vacuum cleaner addict. At this time we have four (4) vacuum cleaners in our apartment. Her reasoning is as follows. We had a good one before but it eventually broke down. We tried to have it fixed but were told that it was not possible to get parts because it was quite old. So, instead throwing it out we kept it thinking that maybe we can use its spare parts if a breakdown will happen with the new vacuum cleaner.

Now, you have to know that my wife does not believe in getting stuff repaired. If it breaks down, get a new one. But I guess the vacuum cleaner is an exception. Now we have two. But the second one was not cleaning as smoothly and well as we would have liked it, she bought a new one (the third!). This is a Shark brand, we had one before and liked it. This one is also good.

But, and this is the BUT. She saw several ads about the robot cleaners, and also saw it in someone's house so, she decided to buy one. We got it yesterday, did not use it yet. One needs to have a degree in computer engineering to set it up but I think we will prevail and get that think working. But in the meantime we have four vacuum cleaners in our house. One for each room!

Yom Kippur

Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On this day the Jews of the world atone for their sins and ask God for forgiveness. To enforce the seriousness of this day there is an all day fast that is part of this day.

The Catholics have confessions. During confessions that can be held whenever they feel the need for it, the faithful confess their wrongdoings and receive their absolution from the priest. This is done few times a year. In comparison, we Jews only confess once a year on Yom Kippur. Does that mean that we don't do too many bad things and once a year confession is enough? No wonder nobody like us!

According to the unwritten rule, over a certain age (being old and feeble) fasting is not required. I do fast because I am not yet feeble, and I want to have a clear conscious going ahead into the new year. Never know what awaits in the future.

Met Gala

On September 13, this past Monday the Met Gala was held in New York. This is not something that is marked in my calendar, but I know it because it was in the news. This is an event supposedly to help the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute. It is a charity event with tickets selling supposedly for $35,000.

This is a high social event where the rich and famous and politicians mingle and dyeing to be seen. Every celebrity wants to outdo the other and the dresses they wear boggles the mind. I don't know if they pay for their dresses or get them for free but in either case they look stupid. In 2019 Lady Gaga changed dresses several times during the evening just to show off. If that is not idiotic then I don't know what is.

This event is not for the common people. This is where being a classless society stopwho went to this  existing. If you are rich you come in, if you are not stay outside and gawk.

Now, there is this commie New York representative Ocasio-Cortez who went to this event. I don't know if she payed for her ticket or got it gratis. She wore a $30,000 white dress with red paint like writing on it saying Tax the Rich. She was showing off this dress, twirling in it like an idiot. I don't know what political statement she was trying to make but this was definitely not the place.

She claims to be socialist, but from where I stand she is as communist as she can be. Just doesn't want to admit it because communist is a dirty word in this country. This is how they all started. Rub up to the rich, Get their support and their confidence, then turn against them at the right time. But in the process enrich themselves as well.

I am sure Fidel Castro started his career somehow in a similar fashion but without the dress.  

Sorry

 I will be totally ashamed to admit that today I forgot to write. It is the afternoon and had that funny feeling that I forgot something. Writing for today was that.

Sorry!

First Responders

To become a fireman, policeman or paramedic means facing danger an a daily basis. It takes a special person to take such a life path. It takes a special person to face danger on a daily basis, yet they keep going. It takes a special person to go off to work not knowing if he or she will be alive at the end of the workshift. But there are thousands of these heroes among us. And they are called first responders.

They are the first to respond to any emergency, might that be fire, medical, criminal or any other type where immediate help is needed. They don't hesitate, they come to help, to intervene. Most of the time they are successful. I don't know the statistics but I am sure that since they know what they are doing they succeed.

It is very sad when their interference, their help ends in tragedy. But, and here is the but it should not be a surprise. These people are aware of the dangers their chosen line of work holds. They are aware of the possibility that any day might end in tragedy. Yet, they keep on going and they keep doing their jobs.

There are danger junkies who love the adrenaline rush such situations create. I don't think these people fall into that category. They just do their job because they want to help where help is needed.

Now, why am I writing this? Because of the big thing that is made about the death of first responders. On the 9/11 memorial the death of the first responders was emphasized. Why? They knew what they got into. The innocent office workers who died there did not.. The firemen and policemen who went to help did because it was their job to face danger. I went to work there planning to sit at my desk and do whatever I was supposed to do, and not to run for my life.

I was lucky. I ran and I am here today. Not everyone was that lucky. But to make such a big deal about loss of the first responders, I think is a little unfair. It is very sad that 2,606 innocent people died because of what happened including about 410 first responders, but to overemphasize the smaller  statistics over the other is, in my opinion is totally unfair.    

   

Sunday

 Today I rest, again.

9/11

Today is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. and understandably the media is full of these events. Since I was there, and survived it I believe I have every right to my comments and observations.

I am sick and tired of these annual memorials! I think they are in bad taste and the organization that supposed to represent the victims is using their position to embarrass the authorities to keep this annual event happening and the politicians for appearing there.

I resent the reading of the names. There were a multitude of people working there from various nationalities. Some of the readers can not even pronounce these names correctly, and I can not think of a bigger insult than to mispronounce the name of a deceased person. It is totally disrespectful.

My boss died in our office as a result of this attack. For years my company sent small gifts to his widow. After about three years she told me it was time to stop this act. Stop this annual remembrance. By now this should be a private thing between families and their loved ones. I agreed with her. Why make people to sit through the reading (or misreading) of thousands of names. 

I lost many friends and colleagues during this attack and I remember all of them. Hearing their names read out loud does not make me feel any better. Some of the people were not even alive when this attack occurred. Whom they lost were uncles, aunts, grand parents. Meaning they never knew them. Yet, they come with their sob stories of how they are being missed.

How can somebody be missed when that person never existed in one's life? 

Anyway, I am a cynic and this is how I feel.

Ps: Our glorious Alzheimered chief executive and his wife made show appearance at the World Trade Center site. They stayed exactly 45 minutes and during the reading of the D lettered names they left. This to show that everything he does is for show and has absolutely no meaning.

 

Caribbean 2

I will be continuing my Caribbean observation. For me to go to a place for vacation includes being free to move around and discover whatever is there to discover. If I am restricted in my movements it is not worth the money to go there.

Restrictions can be caused by political, physical and sociological reasons. Political is in Cuba. But anyway, that place is not in my bucket list. Physical might be that the resort is so isolated that there is no place to go. Sociological is the poverty level of the local population. And this is the prevailing condition  that occurs in some Caribbean islands.

For me, to go to an island and being able to go around in a rented car and try various local restaurants and other things the island offers, like casinos, shopping is half the vacation. Sitting under the sun and enjoy the beautiful Caribbean sea is important but I want more. 

There are islands that are big with their all-inclusive resorts. These resorts offer a multitude of restaurants on premises, unlimited drinking, and good entertainment. They make want to make sure the people have no reason to go out of the boundaries. The main reason for not going out is that it is not safe.

Jamaica and Dominican Republic are two of these places that I know of. They openly discourage their vacationers against going out. In my opinion. when a tourist has more money in his pocket than the poor local makes in a year, he is a sitting duck for trouble. It is a very unfortunate situation because both of these islands are beautiful places but the majority of the vacationers have no opportunity to discover it.

I felt perfectly safe in Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten. In these places I had rented cars and was able to go around freely and discover the natural beauties these island have to offer as well as their restaurants, casinos and shopping.

When I visited Aruba and Curacao the first time the Dutch influence was still there. In later years when Americans started to come this influence started to fade. MacDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and others started to spoil the landscape. 

I love Dutch split pea soup. It is made with ham and tastes very good. I had it in Aruba and it was easy to find it there. I mentioned earlier that St. Maarten is totally Americanized. When I went there the first time I was hoping to get it there, too. But, no luck. They didn't even know what I was talking about. Sad!

But I had goat stew instead.

ricanized.  

I love Dutch split pea soup. It is made with ham and tastes fantastic. I had it in Aruba where it was easy to find. When I qwent to St. Maarten the first time I was hoping to get it there, too. 

Fr

Caribbean 1

I love to spend summer weeks on the Caribbean. In past years I visited several islands and every one of them was wonderful. I went to Aruba, Curacao, Jamaica, Cayman Island, Puerto Rico, Saint Barth and St. Maarten. The one I fell in love with was St. Maarten. This is a Dutch island, extremely Americanized but I will not hold that against them.

Actually, only half the island is Dutch the other half is French. There is a theoretical border but in reality only the pavement and street lighting change when one is crossing over. However, during the covid outbreak the two parts had different rules for prevention, resulting the French side blocking every possible entrance (main roads, streets, alleyways) and thus preventing people from the Dutch side entering.

The Dutch side is independent but under Netherlands control while the French side is under total control of France and obeying all European Union rules, including using the Euro. The Dutch side is preferring the US dollar and everyone speak English. The French side sneers at the dollar and the French being as snobbish as they always are, prefer speaking French, and in some places not even making an effort to understand English.

The Dutch side has very good restaurants but are mainly for the American palate. Good restaurants but with nut much imagination. But the French side claims to have the best cuisine in the Caribbean. That part of the island is filled with French restaurants with various regional food on their menus. If one doesn't mind putting up with obnoxious French waiters these are the places to go.

I can not understand the French behavior. The number of French tourists are minimal, meaning that they are living off the Americans, yet they still resent us. Why? 

As far as I am concerned, they can eat merde!

   

Girth

God forgives, our parents forgive (forgave), our spouses forgive (conditionally), and there might be a few more entities that occasionally forgive. Most forgivenesses are not without a "price". Our spouses never let us live down if there was anything we did that needed their forgiveness. Our parents did forgave most of the time but always kept reminding us about it. Our pets don't hold any grudges if we commit a faux pas.

But the one thing that always forgive us, and do not remind us of any past indiscretion or ill behavior. and don't want any payback is our elastic band pants! These things adjust to our growing girths without any complains. But this also creates a major problem.

All summer long and spring I have been wearing gym shorts. Both in and out of the house. These shorts accommodated me without any problems. But the problem arose when it was necessary to put regular pants on. It turned out I have no pants, short or long that fit. One day I was so upset after trying on about a half a dozen that I was ready to throw them all out.

I admit that I am at fault. Being home all this time, and eating all the good food my wife cooks did make me put on unwanted pounds. Dieting is easy to write down but gym shorts not that easy to do. But, I have no choice. If I don't want to go through life wearing gym shorts and warmup pants I will have to do something about it.

Now, that was very easy to write down. What remaining is the act.    

5782

Today is the first day of Rosh Hashanah. Last night we had a beautiful dinner, My wife worked hard preparing it and she succeed it. I don't know if it was the traditional dinner, but we liked it and if it was not I know that God will forgive us. We ate a lot and enjoyed it.

After dinner we had family time. The tree of us played cards until late night where the girls beat me badly. But being the good dad, no ill feeling. Anyway, the Holidays started.

It is kind of traditional that on these days the weather is mostly nice. And, so far it is going according to tradition. It is sunny, not a cloud in the sky. I hope it will stay like this.

I was curious to see why according to the Jewish calendar it is 5782. How this is being calculated. Well, I started reading the all knowing Wikipedia and I got so confused that it is unbelievable. The only thing I remember that according to their calculation, year 1 was one year before the Creation. How can they put a date on something that did not even exist? 

Anyway, if anybody is as curious as I was, I suggest to read Hebrew Calendar in Wikipedia. Your head will spin. 

P B C

There is this company called Publisher's Clearing House. I really don't know where to put them in the honesty list. I have no idea what they do or what they sell. But they fill my mailbox and emails with their incessant advertisings.

What they advertise? Nothing even remotely connected to publishing. They push worthless mail order products, Americana and long list of things we can comfortably live without. But they claim they have periodic raffle like drawings for unbelievable amounts of money. This is what they use to hook in us, suckers. To receive $7,000 or $10,000 per week for life is nothing to sneer about. 

So, every week we get about 4-6 mailings filled with product coupons and various forms to return in the hope to be a winner. The same come via email. I think we are supporting the post office with the amount of stamps we already used in our responses. Because, we are one of the suckers.

Interestingly, some years ago there was a scandal about this company. Somebody found bags and bags filled with these unopened responses thrown out in the garbage on this company's property. But it seems they weathered this little malheur and they are back in business.

Where does this company gets all this money thay are able to give away? I don't trust them for one minute. I think they just collect names and addresses and in turn they sell them. Maybe if I would win I might change my opinion, but right now they seem as phoney as a three dollar bill.

Shana Tova

 It is Sunday which means that (traditionally) I take this day off. But today I make little remark.

This coming Monday is Labor Day, which is a holiday. Traditionally, the end of Summer (like August 20 in Hungary). I don't know if Mother Nature watches the calendar or not (probably not) but it seems Summer ended already. This morning it is 67 degrees and that is not a summery temperature.

Everything changes in life, why not the weather?

Monday night at sundown the Jewish New Year comes in, and starts the two day celebration called Rosh Hashanah. According to the Jewish calendar year 5782 begins. 

To all my Jewish and non-Jewish friends I wish Shana Tova (meaning good year). 

In my book it does not matter what one's religious belief is, good wishes are always welcome.

Vaccine

New York City public schools are opening next week. The rule is that nobody without te vaccine will be permitted in. That includes staff, employees and most of all students. I am very curious to see how this will work out because there is major resistance against this rule. There are a lot of parents who claim to know more than anybody, who do not want their children vaccinated because... They just don't want it.

We live in an neighborhood that is primarily russian. Jewish, non-jewish but russian. My wife and I go to a russian hair salon. The lady who owns it told us that russian kids do not get the vaccine. As a matter of fact they don't know anybody adult or child who did receive the vaccine. They just don't want it. This shows how smart the Russians are!

Very close to us is a very large city high school. The same that Abigail graduated from. This school has a majority of Russian students. We heard that the Russians parents already complained about the "enforced" vaccination but to no result. The mayor says that anybody who is not vaccinated will be sent home and on-line classes will no longer exist.

And, what does the future looks like? All the Russian kids will be sent home. They will not go to school and they will stay stupid. 

Nothing Special

Weather has no conscience. One day it is a roaring menace, and next like nothing ever happened. Day before yesterday Ida passed through here causing gigantic havoc, yesterday the sky was and is blue, the sun is shining. Only the remnants of the disaster it caused, and no sign of being sorry about it.

This morning we woke up to 60 degree (F) temperature. If this will be the norm now, it will show that we had a very short summer. Looks like fall is here and starting early. With my social schedule it does not matter. I don't go out much and I really don't miss it. Walking is not one of my favorite pastimes. Sitting is!

I am not housebound, I can walk if I have to, but I see not much reason to. I go out when we walk Robin, I go out when we have to go somewhere, and I make believe I enjoy it. But being a true and true old man I complain a lot. I read somewhere that old people do complain, so I do too. If I would see something interesting to go to I would love to go, but the choices are limited.

Doing the "sitting sport" my arse muscles are doing great.

Here is something very uninteresting. I drink coffee every morning. For eons I never used sugar (except when there was nothing else) in my coffee. I used Sweet and Low or similar stuff. Years ago the FDA forbid any sugar substitute containing saccharine claiming it was unhealthy. A very smart friend of mine who was a chemical engineer explained it that the small amounts we were using caused no harm at all. With that knowledge I started to use saccharine tablets made in Europe. 

Whenever I went to Hungary to visit I always stocked up on these. Each cannister holds more than 600 tablets which is enough for a year. Unfortunately, I ran out of my last supply not long ago, and that made it necessary to buy something in the supermarket. Then my darling wife came to my rescue.

She went to Hungary to visit her family and just recently returned. One of the things she bought for me was these sweeteners. Now I have enough for a few years, and my coffees taste better.

  

Ida

Yesterday, Wednesday tropical storm Ida hit New York City and area. This storm started as a hurricane but eventually was downgraded to tropical storm. This storm was one of the biggest ever hit New York. Yesterday it was raining all day. But this rain was not just any ordinary rain. It came down with such a force that it caused serious floods all over the City.

Subway tunnels were flooded, roads were flooded and homes were flooded. I saw on the news that cars were stuck in deep water and were abandoned by their drivers. Today we went out to do some shopping and while driving we saw cars all over the roads without their drivers. It was almost like a war zone. Our apartment house was flooded in the basement. The elevator shaft filled with water and there was about 2-3 inches of water on the floor. But nothing more serious.

Two weeks before there was a tropical storm by the name of Henri that went through this city but that was nearly not as bad as this one. All these storms come up from the south but it is very rare that they cause any serious damage by the time they get here. By that time their strengths are gone and with a few rain squalls and wind they pass through. But this was an exception. And what an exception.

People down south are probably smiling at the devastation we received. They probably think we were smiling when they were hit with these storms, now we got our share. But hey, one lives long enough he sees many weird and unique things in life.

Paralympics 2

It was an unbelievable sight to watch yesterday the swimming numbers from the recent Paralympics. I was really awed by the determination of these people to show the world what human self respect and determination can make a person to succeed.

Young ladies from every part of the world took part in various swimming numbers. All numbers were based on speed. The participants were all handicapped. Some had no leg or legs, one young lady had only one arm, some racers were dwarfs thus their arms were extremely short and others with various physical handicaps.

Yet, they all put on brave fights and regardless who were winners and runner-ups, they were all winners in my book. These people and every participant in these games had the chance the withdraw into themselves and just spend their times sitting idle and watch the grass grow.

But no, they decided to show the world what they are capable of. And many times their accomplishments are outdoing the 100% healthy, They should serve a lesson to the rest of us about human determination.

So, I take my hat off for these strong and determinate people.

Golf

I always thought golf was not a sport and plus it was boring. Lately, lacking much to see on TV, I found professional golf a pretty interesting sport to watch. Every weekend the PGA has a tournament they are broadcasting, where professional golfers try to make more money. Well, there is nothing wrong in trying to make money. We all tried.

In watching these tournaments I am amazed by some of the lucks and some of the bad lucks these players have. The gap between the best and last on the list is huge yet, they all make living doing what they like best. One of the things I noticed the majority of players are young. Even middle aged ones are a rarity. Since I don't think golf is such an exhausting game and because of that I find this phenomena interesting.

The other thing is interesting, that every week when I watch there are players I have not seen before. Where are all these new players come from? In any championships the winners usually rule the game but in golf last week's winner is nowhere to be found this week. How come? I have few favorites that I like, but most of the time I don't see them on the roster. 

I know money rules most of everything in this world but it is ridiculous that these golfers look like walking billboards. Some of them have as many as seven logos on their shirts/caps. I know they get to be compensated by these companies, but this is not very attractive.

Now, that I gave my blessing to golf can chess be far behind?